He's Aidan...She's Lindsay
Together we are The Bicks, and we're here to take you through all our pop culture favourites. Join us as we train our literary lenses on the stories that shape us.
The Bicks Pod
A bickering husband and wife duo discuss their faves.
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Episodes
Tuesday Mar 07, 2023
Tuesday Mar 07, 2023
Is the sophomore slump over for Picard Season 3? Join us to find out! We talk about the highs and lows of the third episode, start delving into some of the fan theories, and dive head first into that conversation from this week's episode. In summary: the wait between Thursdays is getting a bit too long for our liking!
Episode Sponsor: Hail - the Federation's Premier Home Surveillance System
Bicks Log: Who was right - Picard or Crusher?
Notes and Recognitions:
Trek Culture on YouTube - "Ups and Downs From Star Trek Picard: Picard 3.3 - Seventeen Seconds"
Lindsay was (probably) thinking of "17 People" the West Wing episode where the staff are told that President Bartlet has Multiple Sclerosis.
The Reddit thread where Aidan got really pedantic.
Intro Music: Chasing Stars by AG Music
Ad Muzak: "Friendly Skies" from Fly the Friendly Skies of United
Outro Music: Idle Hands by The Impossibulls
Tuesday Feb 28, 2023
Tuesday Feb 28, 2023
Star Trek: Picard is off to rip-roaring start, introducing us to new villainy and adventures and reintroducing us to fan fave characters we haven't seen in decades. It doesn't mean there hasn't been any controversy with the various plot points and character moments we've seen in the past two episodes so far...and The Bicks are not immune to this. Join us as we bicker our way through Picard Season 3 Episode 2 "Disengage".
Episode Sponsor: Accomplishment Allotment
Bicks Log: What's the deal with Captain Liam Shaw?
Notes and Recognitions:
Trek Culture on YouTube - "Ups and Downs from Star Trek: Picard 3.2 - Disengage"
Jesse Gender After Dark on YouTube - "Star Trek Picard 3.02 'Disengage' REVIEW"
The Reddit thread about milking the reveals
And the Reddit one about Jack Crusher being wanted because of Wesley's abilities
Turians from Mass Effect
Vox: "Why we all need subtitles now"
Intro Music: Chasing Stars by AG Music
Ad Muzak: "Friendly Skies" from Fly the Friendly Skies of United
Outro Music: Idle Hands by The Impossibulls
Tuesday Feb 21, 2023
Tuesday Feb 21, 2023
After a brief 5 year hiatus, we're returning to our roots with a weekly, episodic podcast devoted to covering a media in media res - in this case, Star Trek: Picard, Season 3. Join us for a look at this early hint of the storytelling to come, as well as our takes on the characters displayed so far, the numerous easter eggs, and which of our gripes about Seasons 1 and 2 of Picard are still ringing in our ears early in Season 3.
Notes:
Couldn't find any reference to Q turning Picard human again at the end of Season 2, just for clarity's sake.
Episode Sponsor:
Today's episode is brought to you by the near-mythical Portal 3! Now you're thinking with portals!
Bicks Log:
We dig into the question: "Do you think this season is going to live up to the hype, or will it be another disappointment?"
Credits:
Intro Music: Chasing Stars by AG Music
Outro Music: Idle Hands by The Impossibulls
Tuesday Feb 07, 2023
Tuesday Feb 07, 2023
Modern fanfiction may very well have had its start with the original trio of Kirk, McCoy, and Spock. So today we're joining the numerous fans before us who decided to tell stories about the crew of the USS Enterprise (no bloody B, C, or D). Join us as we talk about our process for writing these stories, the issues we ran into along the way, and even have a bit of a mini writing workshop right on the podcast. After years of hearing us call ourselves writers, now you can judge for yourselves!
Notes:
Aidan's story is called "Middle Decks" and is all about the four secondary characters of the series who never got quite the love of the main trio.
Lindsay's story is called "Rumours" and is a peek behind what preceded Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country - the series of phone calls that got the gang back together.
Credits:
Intro Music: Chasing Stars by AG Music
Outro Music: Idle Hands by The Impossibulls
Tuesday Jan 24, 2023
Tuesday Jan 24, 2023
The final farewell of The Original Series crew is a great summation of all the threads that we've touched on in our previous episodes and which have constituted some of the best parts of the series. The conclusion of the Klingon/Soviet cold war, the gathering of the film series' creative dream team, and the three main characters being front and centre - with Kirk being most central of all - provides a fitting end to the characters and setting that had been running for over 20 years.
Join us for a chat about this classic (possibly science fiction) film, as we bid farewell to these characters (at least in their first iteration).
Notes:
Nancy Meyers is indeed a romantic-comedy legend. No relation to Nicholas Meyer beyond the last names.
Plummer and Shatner were said to have a long-standing friendship, but the story of Shatner getting his big break as Plummer's understudy in Henry V is a real one, apparently.
Animorphs most certainly did have a TV Series.
This was Aidan's original movie box-set, which was actually released in the later 90s: https://images.app.goo.gl/KoaVtRsWrWg3UJPB8
Neither of us have acquainted ourselves with any of the definitions of Science Fiction.
Though Aidan may regret his stance on the Doctor Who franchise, he otherwise stands by his belief that Science Fiction can be pretty much anything.
Today's Sponsor:
So happy to be partnered with the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, located in Bar' Dak, Qo'nos. Make sure to visit today, and tell them the Bicks sent ya!
Bicks Log:
Does Star Trek VI (and similarly themed Star Trek films/episodes) count as Science Fiction, or not?
Credits:
Intro Music: Chasing Stars by AG Music
Outro Music: Idle Hands by The Impossibulls
Tuesday Jan 10, 2023
Tuesday Jan 10, 2023
Star Trek V: The Final Frontier is widely derided as the worst (or one of the worst) films in the Star Trek canon. Despite this, Lindsay still has fond memories of watching this film as a child and she'll be damned if she lets Aidan bring her down to reality! Join us for a discussion of God, starships, and campfire singalongs in this week's episode
Episode Sponsor: Prophetic Titles. Totally not a scam. We promise. One low price gets you the right to title yourself Kai. Own your plot of space in the Celestial Temple today!
Bicks Log:
Notes and Recognitions:
iMDB trivia page, where we got some of our background details
Check out Rowan J Coleman's YouTube channel for a ton of amazing retrospectives and history of Star Trek -- his channel is a repository of info and if you aren't already a fan, you really ought to be!
Ad break music: "Beautiful Noise" by the Nick Perito Orchestra
"The Mountain" by Jerry Goldsmith
Intro Music: Chasing Stars by AG Music
Outro Music: Idle Hands by The Impossibulls
Tuesday Dec 27, 2022
Tuesday Dec 27, 2022
Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, collectively known in The Bicks home as "The One with the Whales." A classic 80s film, a classic Trek film, and a unique entry in the series all at once. We loved chatting about this one and hope you'll enjoy our wandering discussion of the most populist of Star Trek movies!
Notes:
It was Alan Silvestri who did the music for Back to the Future.
Moores is a Canadian men's clothing company. The Home Depot is an American hardware and home improvement chain. These two pieces of information will help clarify the odd bit around the 36-37th minute of the podcast.
Episode Sponsor: Today's episode is brought to you by Whales Alive, the very real album that really featured Leonard Nimoy really doing spoken word poetry over top of very real whale song. Please go listen right now.
Bicks Log: Was the success of The Voyage Home a template that could have saved the second fourth movie of Star Trek - 2002's Star Trek: Nemesis? Would a funnier, less dramatic and serious Next Generation movie have changed the trajectory of the Star Trek franchise?
Tuesday Dec 13, 2022
Tuesday Dec 13, 2022
By the time The Search for Spock was announced, it was fairly clear that the Star Trek brand was more than strong enough to justify its continued return to box offices; within a few years, it would return to TV screens, as well. But not before Kirk & Co. return to the Genesis planet from The Wrath of Khan to rescue Spock. Which is what we're going to be talking about today.
Episode Sponsor: I Can't Believe It's Not Gagh!
Bicks Log: Was David's death an earned emotional moment, or mere manipulation?
Notes and Recognitions:
Intro Music: Chasing Stars by AG Music
Outro Music: Idle Hands by The Impossibulls
Lindsay is a writer and junior high school English teacher based in Edmonton, Alberta. In addition to loving Twin Peaks and Shakespeare, she is a big fan of her husband, Aidan, her three cats (Neko, Cooper, and Audrey), teaching, reading and writing, and traveling.
And coffee...you can't forget coffee.
Aidan is a writer and communications professional also based in Edmonton, Alberta. His work has been featured in several different publications, periodicals, and books. When he isn't writing or podcasting, he can usually be found attending to his second love: gaming, with a cat or two at his side.
We met when we were 18. We supported each other through university. We moved in together at and then we got married. We live in the coolest neighbourhood in Edmonton. And we record our podcast in our home office overlooking the North Saskatchewan River Valley.
Our podcast came to life in late 2016 as Bickering Peaks: A Twin Peaks Podcast. In those early days, we spent our time rewatching Twin Peaks and analysing the series in Season One of the podcast.
In Season Two of our show, we applied that same rigour to Twin Peaks: The Return.
Season Three saw us tackle the larger question of series co-creators' David Lynch's and Mark Frost's creative oeuvre.
We decided to take our podcast into vastly different territory for Season Four when we dove headfirst into the works of William Shakespeare.
Our slightly truncated Season Five boldly went where no Bicks have gone before...and we promise we will finish our look at the Star Trek universe soon.
Season Six is our soft reboot — a return to form and hopefully a more regular release schedule. We hope you'll continue to follow along as we tackle the pop culture stuff that strikes our fancy.
You can contact us at thebickspod[at]gmail[dot]com.